Two-thirds of Jews killed in Holocaust identified

An employee returns a box containing tapes to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum's archive in Jerusalem, in this August 10, 2010 file photo. A list of confirmed names of Jews killed by the Nazis in World War Two has reached the four million mark, Israel's Holocaust museum announced on December 21, 2010, saying the identity of all six million dead may never be known.

AP says:

Yad Vashem has made the recovery of the names a main mission in order to keep the memory of the murdered Jews alive.

Yad Vashem says names are recovered through people who remembered the murdered Jews and by combing archival lists and other documentation.

The task is especially difficult because entire families were wiped out and documents were destroyed during the Nazi genocide.

Baz Ratner / Reuters

A visitor looks at a video installation at the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem.

Yannis Behrakis / Reuters

A man stands under pictures of Jews killed in the Holocaust in the Hall of Names at Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem.

Menahem Kahana / AFP - Getty Images

Tourists visit the Hall of Names where names and photos of Jews who perished under the Nazi regime are stored at the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem.